Can you please help me read my water and ph /peat help please

[sunspark]

nitrates 0
ph in tank 8
ph out of tap 7.9
ammonia .25
17.9 ppm gh
107.4 ppm kh
temp 88
Fish went into cycled tank at 6 pm last night and it is noon now.

I will be doing a water change today, just wanted to figure out the ph thing first.
My water is unchlorinated, not sure about chloramines yet....
Don't know about CO2 either.

I want to do a 10% wc, should I just go ahead and do it straight from the tap (adjusting for temp) OR use the two buckets I set aside last night to age but they are not heated so temp is about 70

I know my ph is too high. I went and bought a large garbage can and a bale of peat.....Overwhelmed and don't know what to do next. I do have a pump somewhere that is brand new, bought it for a pond and never used it. So. I can age my water with peat once I find a link with good instructions.

Thanks, Carolyn

[sunspark]

ok, I just read the thread about not having to change your ph (unless you're trying to breed-I'm only trying to keep them alive at this point). So maybe I shouldn't bother with the peat?
Thanks, Carolyn

If you decide to alter your water pH, Peat would be a good choice.

IM Yogi (aka Jerry Baer) or Smokey. They are Peat pros.

There are also lots of post regarding peat and how to do it here.

here are 2 I found:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=12525;st art=msg132377#msg132377

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=15223;st art=msg158991#msg158991



hth Carolyn

Ronald

[Carol_Roberts]

If you are on a public water system you will have chlorine or chloramines. IF you have a private well you most likely don't have either one.

I'm not sure about your numbers for hardness and buffer. I think 17.9 is GH 1 very, very soft - like RO water. Yet your buffer is much higher. What did you use to test GH? What is the scale?

IF your water is very soft you will need to add minerals (the equivalent of RO right) to stabilize pH and avoid pH crash.

[sunspark]

Test kit is made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. Includes both a GH and a KH test. THe GH test only required one drop of the solution before turing green.

The KH test required 5-6 drops of the other solutuon before turing from blue to bright yellow, the chart says 6 dKH or 107.4 ppm KH(or it was lighter yellow at 5 or 89.5. The kit suggests discuss should be in the 1-3 or 0-50 ppm range. Suggests I should add deionized water to the tank.

I have to say I feel like I'm speaking a foreighn language here and not understanding much of it.

My ph doesn't seem to crash or jump much. It comes out of the tap at 7.9 and is 8 in the tank. I have 11 other tanks with bettas, angels, and their tanks seem to be pretty steady at about 7.8-8. Is that much of a jump really when you're doing 30% water changes?

Thanks, Carolyn

[Carol_Roberts]

Your pH is fine. You can easily do 50% water changes.

Adults need soft water to breed. You have very soft water to breed in. Juveniles actually do better with more minerals. Grow these guys out in your tap with daily water changes. I bet they do just fine ;D

[sunspark]

THanks Carol. I don't think I'm gonna start messing with anything until I get more comfortable or of course, unless I see problems occuring.

I went ahead and did a 30% wc straight from the tap and they all seem very happy. No stress bars, no gasping, clamping or any other signs of stress lol, thank goodness.

I also made my own food mix tonight loosely following some of the recipes in the recipe thread. They loved it! Have been eating well all day, and I fed them 3 times.

The one that was laying on his side last night has been upright all day and shows signs of possible a full recovery. He's has had stress bars on and off all day, but I think he'll be ok:)

Thanks, Carolyn